Wilson Kirabira a Nutritionist and Public Health Specialist invites you to his journey with i4Life.
I knew i4Life following a recommendation from a fellow nutritionist Sinead O’mahony based in Ireland we closely to save lives of malnourished children in early in Uganda’s most chronically food insecure region of Uganda Karamoja 2000s.
Following a fruitful interaction with Maura-i4Life Volunteer CEO, in May 2019 I accepted an assignment to assess the food and nutrition situation of individuals living in Offaka subcounty. The exercise I executed successfully due the great cooperation from AAC and Offaka subcounty. The subcounty is home to Adraa Agricultural College, a centre of excellence for sustainable agricultural for rural development (SARD).
Attention was drawn to the fact from the assessment results showed four in every ten children had for a long-time consumed food inadequate in nutrients causing them stunted growth while two suffered acute malnutrition. Recommendations were made to help communities improve their nutrition wellbeing mainly to integrate nutrition sustainable agricultural activities.
The situation called for a response to save lives and change lives, thus i4life partnered with Adraa Agricultural College (AAC) to; a) develop a nutrition curriculum for use by community nutrition facilitators and student at the college, b) implement nutrition awareness and screening for malnutrition through outreach.
Am lucky to be apart of this pilot project destined to develop tools and structures to build community resilience against food insecurity and malnutrition and related shocks. A couple of months back I have coordinated a team of nutritionists and social scientists from Zambia, Ireland and Uganda to develop a learner friendly nutrition curriculum, available in draft copy. Implementing the curriculum will build capacity of several students, community facilitators and communities to cope, adapt and thrive in the face of climate related crisis food insecurity and malnutrition shocks.